Assembly Station Orange Line stop now open

Station serves Somerville

Bilkisu Suleiman, and 1-year-old Iman Bello, of Medford were took the train to go shopping.(Suzanne Kreiter/Globe staff)

The MBTA opened its first subway station in more than a quarter-century on Tuesday morning at Somerville’s Assembly Square, the site of a massive redevelopment effort that could draw thousands of new residents.

The new Orange Line stop — between the Wellington and Sullivan Square stations — was formally dedicated in the afternoon.

The MBTA estimates that the $29 million station, known as Assembly Station, will serve about 5,000 riders a day by 2030. That’s about the same amount of traffic as the nearby Community College Orange Line stop has today but less than the ridership at Wellington and Sullivan Square.

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The station is being paid for though a partnership between the state, federal agencies, and the developer of the neighboring mixed-use Assembly Row project.

The builder, Federal Realty Investment Trust of Maryland, says the $1.5 billion redevelopment of a former Ford Motor plant is one of the largest construction projects underway on the East Coast.

The company also built the adjacent Assembly Square Marketplace, which includes a TJ Maxx ‘N More, Staples, and Bed, Bath & Beyond.

No MBTA subway stations have come online since 1987, when the southern portion of the Orange Line shifted from the Washington Street elevated to the Southwest Corridor.